


No matter where you live

by risinggreatness



Series: Circle 'round the sun [66]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 11:04:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2809952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/risinggreatness/pseuds/risinggreatness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Where you came from may define who you are, not where you are going (not EU compliant)</p>
            </blockquote>





	No matter where you live

Luke leaves them alone in the hold of the Falcon when all is said and done. Leia keeps her hands locked around Han’s, whether for his support or her own, she isn’t sure anymore.

He was uncharacteristically silent through the ordeal, nodding and affirming when needed.

“You okay?” she asks, then presses her face to his shoulder. ( _He still smells like the bonfires, the pyre. It is her scent too._ )

Slowly, as if coming out of a daze, “Yeah…”

Leia looks up as Han swears softly, “Fuck. That is a lot to take in.”

It is something new and terrifying and, now that she knows it, vital, pumping through her veins. She doesn’t know how to explain it to him, but she will find a way some day.

He looks down, “What about you?”

“Coping.” It is the best answer she has for now. “Learning what it’s like, but I’ve got Luke to help. And you.”

Han cracks a lopsided smile, “Yeah, you’ll talk to your _brother_ about your secret family history.”

She wants to rib him, but restrains herself. Yes, it’s been strange, but how could they explain to anyone the pull they felt?

( _She realizes now, Han came into her life at the same time Luke came back. It’s not Luke’s fault there’s been less._ )

She’s shared nearly everything she is with the man next to her; her whole unknown past laid bare before him, and she somehow only sees him as beginning in the cell block on the Death Star. Not exactly the fitting image for the man she wants to live her life with.

“And what about you; your family?”

If Han is shocked by her question – the one she should have asked years ago if she wasn’t so wrapped up in pride and nerves when it came to all things Han Solo – he doesn’t show it right away.

“There isn’t much to the Solos, sweetheart. Parents died when I was a kid and I didn’t have another family until Chewie. Until you two.”

There is more ( _there is always more_ ), but Leia will leave Han be. They have all the time they need now to learn the rest of everything.

Leia kisses him, catching the unknown scar on his chin.

\----------

Out in the field of battle again, Saw doesn’t feel so wary anymore.

Except it’s not a battlefield, it’s lurking in the shadows; watching, waiting for a hint of what’s to come. It is the sort of war he came of age in and, perversely, misses.

What’s more, he believes in the cause. It’s a funny thing, wanting to see something done beyond Onderon’s needs. He could tell himself it’s a favor for Ahsoka; joining forces with Organa for the first time, but underneath it all, he has to admit to there are things bigger than Onderon.

So here he is, staking out the Zygerrian capital with Skywalker. Ahsoka went off in the opposite direction with Talia; he suspects she left him behind with Skywalker on purpose. It may be for the best; instead of swapping old war remembrances, they’ll focus on the task at hand.

Saw’s no judge of character, but the Skywalker fiddling with some wiring in his lightsaber does not resemble ( _at least in a way_ ) the one he knew for a time forever ago.

And yet Skywalker has every accolade Saw ever wanted in destroying the Empire for the Separatists, for Onderon, for himself.

“So… ‘Hero of Yavin,’ huh?”

“Yup.”

Saw waits for more; Skywalker keeps yanking and twisting at wires.

“It’s a bit surprising the Republic’s not more interested in updating that for you.”

Skywalker actually looks up from his work, an eyebrow raised. “And what do you think I should be lugging around?”

“‘The Emperor and Vader’s Assassin’ was something I always fancied.”

The faintest grimace crosses Skywalker’s face, “I’ll stick with ‘Hero of Yavin,’ thanks.”

Saw sees red. Any of them would have jumped at the opportunity to take the task; even if it meant certain death. ( _It would anger him more, but for Ahsoka’s sake, this Skywalker didn’t even have the courtesy to die in the attempt._ )

He scoffs, “You wanted it enough to go through with killing them in the first place. Hell, who wouldn’t, after what they did to your father?”

“It wasn’t a personal vendetta.”

It doesn’t take any of Ahsoka or Skywalker’s Jedi training for Saw to be able to tell he’s being lied to. Saw leans back and looks up at the purpling sky, exhaling out. He’s tried less blunt approaches and Skywalker’s suspicious even tone means Saw’ll have to do the same; appeal to reason.

( _It is personal: Steela, Lux, and all his other countless soldiers._ )

“Fine, it wasn’t _personal_ , so take on the honor for the good you did the galaxy.”

Skywalker sucks in air; stays silent.

“Say what you want to say,” Saw cuts through the tense mood. ( _He tells himself he can take this boy’s disapproval without an outburst._ )

“But what if _you_ really were interested in the good of the galaxy and not a vendetta?”

Saw was wrong.

“Excuse me?”

There’s no stopping Skywalker now, not heeding Saw’s own building temper, for Skywalker has already exceeded him.

“Gods, do you know how long Leia fought with the rest of the Alliance to try and convince you to join us? Do you know much faster it all could have ended? Leia wore herself out – wears herself out trying to finish what Bail Organa started for the whole galaxy, but Saw Gerrera only has Onderon.”

Saw would be furious for all of Skywalker’s presumptions, but he recognizes something in Skywalker’s fighting tone which dissipates the rage in his chest and fills it with an almost sadness.

“You’re her brother, aren’t you?”

Skywalker is taken aback, but does not deny it, “Leia told you that?”

“No, I just figured.”

Skywalker nods slightly, but is obviously somewhere else; lightsaber work abandoned. Saw takes another hard look at him.

He sees himself. Orphaned – on the streets at seventeen – and leading an army against the worst possible odds – too young at twenty-one, Steela even younger.

But there is the fundamental difference: he found his sister. Saw would be jealous of Skywalker’s additional good fortune; he’d give up all the glory in the galaxy if it meant Steela would be with him again.

Something about Skywalker – about Organa – suddenly makes a little more sense.

Saw unfolds his arm and fiddles with the sight on his rifle. He’s never been good with looking people in the eye when it came to the personal, but he’ll replay old war stories.

He clears his throat, “I suppose this doesn’t mean much, but I knew your father.”

“Ahsoka’s told me as much.”

Of course she has. Years have gone by, and there’s still something of the kid who looked up to her teacher with starry eyes.

“He was a tough bastard, if you want the truth. Wanted Onderon to defer back to the Republic a little too much,” Saw laughs in spite of himself. Leia Organa is the daughter of both Bail Organa and Anakin Skywalker. “But we needed all the help we could get at that point.”

Something of a smile pulls at Skywalker’s face, and there is amused – Saw can’t place it – relief when he speaks.

“I appreciate that. Thank you.”

Ahsoka’s filling him ( _and his stubborn sister_ ) with too many fanciful stories of the ‘Hero with No Fear,’ no doubt. Skywalker needs a little of the reality.

And maybe he has to be the ‘Hero of Yavin’ – more fitting for Anakin Skywalker’s son than the killer of the Emperor and Vader.

Saw would have taken it on, were he the one to have done it. It’d suit him better.

“No you wouldn’t have. Stop being so ridiculous,” he hears Steela chide. ( _If he closes his eyes, he might see her shrugging and shaking her head in loving exasperation._ )

No, he definitely wouldn’t take on a name like that, if Steela told him not to.

“See, Steela? I can be a little diplomatic when the occasion calls for it. Tell Lux I’m figuring it out too.”

\----------

Seeing a father reunite with his daughter becomes too much to watch, even from a distance. Luke turns to speak to Mara, only to find she no longer stands next to him. He finds her leaning against the side of a ship some distance away from the newly-liberated people.

“Didn’t take you long to find me, did it? And here I thought I was getting better at disappearing into the dark. What good is Jedi training if I can’t do that properly?”

Luke doesn’t have the heart to tell her she wasn’t cloaking her presence very well; it’s too fraught with emotion to not have noticed where she’d hidden herself away.

He reaches out, “Mara –”

She shrugs away violently before he ever gets close, “Don’t, Luke, don’t.”

It’s the first time she hasn’t called him ‘Skywalker.’ He swallows the lump in his throat, arms hanging limply at his sides, and looks from her slumped shoulders and face hidden in her hands.

Finally, after an eternity, she looks up, throwing her hair back. Luke keeps focused on the horizon outside the hangar.

“I hated them so much when I was younger – my parents. It seems stupid now, but gods I had to get away. And seeing all those people, I thought what I would do if I saw them again.”

It is fantasy Luke indulges in too often; he knows it too well. “Have you tried looking for them?”

A hacked laugh escapes Mara, “No. I’m sure the second I’d walk back on that ship they’d tell me it’s my own damn fault the Emperor did what he did to me.”

“It isn’t.”

Harshly, “I know it isn’t.” Then Mara sighs, “I’m almost jealous of you, Skywalker.”

“Not many people would claim that, knowing the truth like you do.”

It’s odd, but it is an indirect assurance from Mara she truly trusts him.

“I said ‘almost.’ No, in spite of it all, I’d rather be their runaway daughter than live with hiding from Vader, even after he’s dead.”

In spite of everything, it is a pride on her part, but Luke admires that Mara holds her head high.

When they return to see to the freed slaves ( _no, not slaves anymore_ ), Mara stands solemnly and benignly. No dark history, no troubled past – just Mara; the Jedi she’s always meant to become.

**Author's Note:**

> See author bio for discussion on this 'verse.


End file.
